Blog

I finished up the yurt last week. It now sits in it's new spot for the winter. I rigged up the wood stove and got the stove pipe up and secure. I lit a fire tonight and I am happy have this completed. I am starting to set it up with my bench, tool chest, shaving horse and chopping block. I'm really excited to have just this small space to work in. It forces me to clean up after myself at the end of the workday. I got to do a little work in it tonight on getting the finish door built. I had a quick door up last night but found that it was way to temporary for any more than a day. I'll be adding one more post on the yurt once I get it set up within the next few days. I have lot's of work to do, making the items I sell in the next few weeks with the Christmas shows and a new updated website under construction. All in due time.

first fire in the yurt

We also got 10 loggers cords of oak firewood delivered this past week. A logger's cord measures 4' x 4' x 8'. That means a mountain of wood! We began cutting and splitting it tonight. We will be working on it every night until it's all cut up. Winter is coming, and I feel it's going to be soon. An Ol' Timer once said that after the Tamarack (Larch) looses their needle's snow is on it's way. That happened last week. We are getting temp's down into the 20's f at night now and just over 40 during the day. I'll be wearing my wool longjohn's from here until April....not the same pair, well ok, the same pair, but I wash them! Wool longjohns aren't cheap.

my bad ass wife swinging the splitting maul

This past weekend I went over to the Winter Camping Symposium. It's held just south of Duluth Mn. I taught a class on making the crooked knife and had a great time. One of the highlights was getting to meet and hear presentations and stories form Two men. One lived in the far north of the Northwest Territory of 30 years with the Dogrib Indians. He lived pretty much a subsistence lifestyle hunting caribou, fishing and trapping. What stories he had! The other man spent a great deal of time on the other side of Canada with the Cree near Hudson bay and Inuit of Baffin Island. Both men knew well and the use of dogs for travel. They had a few wooden toboggans for us to see. The best part for me was the rigging of one dog to a toboggan. After seeing this the light bulb went on. I might just get a pup and train it to pull. A rig like that might be a great help on the trap line in the winter. I am sorry but I forgot my camera and don't have any pictures, save for in my head.

April just finished up processing the last of the wild rice we harvested this year. I took a few shots in the rice house and will do a post on that next. Until then....